Shooting the Moon thur Tree Branches

[fkelly]

I was going for a shot to capture a crescent moon thru a bare tree and its limbs. I focused directly on the crescent moon. The tree limbs came out sharp but the crescent moon was just a white blur.
Suggestions on capturing this shot- should I not have focused on the moon itself.

Thanks in advance.... 

[DeanChriss]

I can't tell from your post, but if you focused on the moon through the tree limbs the camera undoubtedly locked onto the limbs and not the moon. Second, if you're using a long lens it'll be difficult or impossible to get both the moon and the tree sharp simultaneously. (added) If you want the moon sharp either focus directly on it and then turn off AF, or use manual focus and just set the lens at infinity. The first method is best for long lenses since the infinity focus will vary a bit with temperature.

[EricV]

Your metering system also has no chance to expose properly for the moon, if you want it to show up as anything other than pure white in the image.  If you want the moon properly exposed, either use the histogram to avoid clipping (assuming there are enough moon pixels to show up on the histogram) or use the old "sunlit landscape" rule of thumb and bracket around 1/ISO @ f/11.  If that leaves the branches badly underexposed, you can capture two very different exposures and merge them in post-processing.